Is Russia the REAL target of Western sanctions?

 I don't know about this. I just find the idea interesting. Clearly some of the sanctions were ready long before the start of the war and the financial reset being unavoidable, a war is most certainly convenient after the virus. 

 Our governments are not capable of thinking that far. They are just being manipulated. But are the manipulators able to organize something so complex? Or more like channeling every opportunity as they come, towards a goal? 

Guest Post by Kit Knightly

The first tweet I saw when I checked my timeline this morning was from foreign policy analyst Clint Ehlirch, pointing out that the Russian ruble has already started recovering from the dip created by Western sanctions, and is almost at pre-war levels:

Ehrlich states, “sanctions were designed to collapse the value of the Ruble, they have failed”.

…to which I can only respond, well “were they?”

…and perhaps more importantly, “have they?”

Because it doesn’t really look like it, does it?

If anything, the sanctions seem to be at best rather impotent, and at worst amazingly counterproductive.

It’s not like the US/EU/NATO don’t know how to cripple economies. They have had years of practice starving the people of Cuba, Iraq, Venezuela and too many others to list.

Now, you could argue that Russia is a larger, more developed economy than those countries, and that’s true, but the US and its allies have previously managed to hurt the Russian economy quite drastically.

As recently as 2014, following the “annexation” of Crimea, Western sanctions were tame compared to the recent unprecedented measures, but crucially the US massively increased its own oil production, then later that year (following a visit by US Secretary of State John Kerry) Saudi Arabia did the same.

Despite objections from other members of OPEC – Venezuela and Iran chiefly – the Saudis flooded the market with oil.

The result of these moves was the biggest fall in oil prices for decades – collapsing from $109 a barrel, in June 2014, to $44 by January 2015.

This kicked Russia into a full recession and saw Russia’s GDP shrink for the first time under Putin’s leadership.

Again, just two years ago, allegedly as part of competing with Russia for a share of the oil market, Saudi Arabia once more flooded the market with cheap oil.

So, the West does know how to hurt Russia if it really wants to – by increasing oil production, flooding the market and tanking the price.

But has the US increased its oil production this time round? Have they leant on their Gulf allies to do the same?

Not at all.

In fact, in a point of beautiful narrative synchronicity, the US claims it’s “unable” to increase its oil production due to “staff shortages” caused by that gift that keeps on giving – Covid.

Similarly, Saudi Arabia is not tanking the oil market, but deliberately increasing prices.

Yes, right now, with the Western allies locked in an alleged economic war with Russia the price of oil is soaring, and may continue to do so.

This is good news for the Russian economy, to the point it may even make up for the damage done by the brutal sanctions.

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The high price of oil and need “not to rely on Putin’s gas” or “de-Russify” our energy supply will doubtless result in millions being poured into “green” technology.

Those Western sanctions are targeting other Russian exports too, including grains and food in general.

Russia is a net exporter of food, meaning they export more food than they import. Conversely, many countries in Western Europe rely on imported food, including the UK which imports over 48% of its food supply.

If Europe refuses to buy Russian food, the net effect is that Russia has food…and the West doesn’t.

And, just as with oil, increasing food prices will help rather than hinder the Russian economy.

Take wheat for example, of which Russia is the biggest exporter in the world. The vast majority of this wheat is not even sold to Western countries – but instead to China, Kazakhstan, Egypt, Nigeria and Pakistan – and so is not even subject to sanctions.

Nevertheless, the sanctions, and the war, have actually driven the price of wheat up almost 30%.

This is good for the Russian economy.

Meanwhile, according to CNN, the US is likely to enter a full-blown recession by 2023, France is considering food vouchers and countries all over the world are expected to begin rationing fuel.

So, the sweeping sanctions imposed against Russia by the West, allegedly in response to the invasion of Ukraine, are not having their stated aim – tanking the Russian economy – but they are driving up the price of oil, creating potential energy and food shortages in the West and exacerbating the “cost of living” crisis created by the “pandemic”.

You should always be wary of anybody – individual or institution – whose actions accidentally achieve the exact opposite of their stated aim. That’s a simple rule to live by.

Remember how Orwell described the evolution of the concept of war in 1984:

War, it will be seen, is now a purely internal affair. In the past, the ruling groups of all countries, although they might recognize their common interest and therefore limit the destructiveness of war, did fight against one another, and the victor always plundered the vanquished. In our own day they are not fighting against one another at all. The war is waged by each ruling group against its own subjects, and the object of the war is not to make or prevent conquests of territory, but to keep the structure of society intact.

Recall that “the worst food shortages for fifty years” were predicted as a result of Covid. But they never materialised.

Likewise, we were due to experience Covid-related energy disruptions and power cuts. Short of the UK’s damp squib of a “petrol crisis”, they never really arrived.

But now they are heading our way after all – because war and sanctions

Increased food prices, decreased use of fossil fuels, lowering standards of living, public money poured into “renewables”. This is all part of a very familiar agenda, isn’t it?

Regardless of what you feel about Putin, Zelensky, the war in general or Ukrainian Nazis, it’s time to confront the elephant in room.

We need to be asking: What exactly is the real aim of these sanctions? And how come they align so perfectly with the great reset?

Did Russia Intentionally Trigger A Monetary System Reset?

 This to my opinion is the case and so the "real" war has started.

Did Russia Intentionally Trigger A Monetary System Reset?

Written by Dave Kranzler, Sprott Money News

March 30, 2022

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“We are witnessing the birth of Bretton Woods III – a new world (monetary) order centred around commodity-based currencies in the East that will likely weaken the Eurodollar system and also contribute to inflationary forces in the West.” – Zoltan Pozsar, Bretton Woods III

Fiat currency is a “promise” to repay a debt obligation and nothing more. A hard asset-backed currency is a guarantee that repayment will occur.

On March 7th Zoltan Pozsar, who formerly worked at the NY Fed, was an advisor at the U.S. Treasury and currently is a strategist as Credit Suisse, published a research report titled “Bretton Woods III.” Anyone familiar with the Bretton Woods agreement understands the reference. Nixon’s snipping of the final thread connecting currency to gold is considered to be Bretton Woods II. Pozsar makes the case that Bretton Woods III is a reversion back to a monetary system in which currency is backed by commodities as opposed to being backed by a sovereign issuer’s “full faith and credit.”

A crisis is unfolding.  A crisis of commodities. Commodities are collateral, and collateral is money, and this crisis is about the rising allure of outside money over inside money. Bretton Woods II was built on inside money, and its foundations crumbled a week ago when the G7 seized Russia’s FX reserves. – ibid

The post-1971 fiat currency reserve banking system enabled by the removal of gold from the monetary system is nothing more than a Ponzi scheme. “Inside money” refers to the interbank repo/lending mechanism from which the fractional bank reserve monetary system blossoms. Pozsar distinguishes “inside money” from “outside money.” “Inside money” is created by the Central Bank/inter-bank lending mechanism that can magically turn one dollar of reserve capital into nine dollars of “credit” capital. And the one dollar of reserve capital is backed by nothing tangible – just the “full faith and credit” of the issuing entity.

Think of this monetary system as an inverted pyramid – eg something like Exter’s Pyramid.  In bankruptcy law, “full faith and credit” would be considered, at best, an unsecured loan.  Get in line and pray that there’s value left over to be distributed to the unsecureds.

In contrast, Pozsar references Bretton Woods III as the “rising allure of outside money over inside money,” where “outside money” is “commodities collateral,” meaning tangible assets for which definitive value can be determined, as opposed to the sovereign promise of “full faith and credit.”  In periods of banking crises, banks are reluctant to participate in the “inside game” (see 2008 and September 2019, for instance) because, at that point in time, they don’t trust the fiat currency collateral on which the fractional reserve banking system is predicated and thus are reluctant to lend money to their banking peers. Every time this occurs, the Central Banks have to print more money to “lubricate” the system enough so that it functions. This in turn further devalues the “inside money” on which the system is predicated.

But if currency issued by Governments and printed by Central Banks is backed by hard assets, this problem is avoided. In this system, the counterparty to trade or financing transactions would have the option of demanding payment in the hard asset or assets backing the currency – most likely gold or possibly a pre-agreed upon commodity asset. Remember, fiat currency is nothing more than an unsecured debt instrument of the issuing entity.

It’s likely that Putin knew ahead of time that the west’s response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine would be to freeze Russian currency reserves held at western Central Banks. Of course, this response by the U.S./west brought to light the inherent Achilles’ Heel of the modern Central Bank fiat currency reserve system. Any country that keeps currency reserves for trade settlement purposes at foreign Central Banks, specifically the Federal Reserve and the ECB, is at risk of having those reserves confiscated, thereby rendering them worthless.

In response, Russia is now demanding payment for energy in either rubles or gold from what it deems to be “unfriendly” countries. Whereas in the “inside money” banking system, settlement of trade is merely a matter of accounting ledger adjustments at the respective Central Banks, in this trade settlement arrangement, a country purchasing oil or gas from Russia in exchange for gold would need to 1) demonstrate that the gold being used for trade payment actually exists and 2) transfer the ownership rights to Russia. Russia ultimately would likely demand repatriation of the gold. The U.S./G7 made it crystal clear that possession of assets is 100% of the law.

The response by the west – led by the U.S. and its control of the global reserve currency – in all likelihood has triggered a reset of the global monetary system. I actually do not like the term “Bretton Woods III” because it references an agreement that, in its essence, destroyed the gold-backed global monetary system. Regardless, it appears for now that Russia – likely with China’s tacit support – has set in motion a global monetary system reset. In the new system countries which supply the world with goods that have price inelasticity of demand – oil, natural gas and food commodities, for instance – will have the power to enforce trade settlement in hard currencies – e.g. gold or other hard assets – rather than fiat currency Central Bank accounting ledger adjustments. This is the nature of the monetary system reset that has been triggered. Welcome to Galt’s Gulch…

“Money is the barometer of a society’s virtue. When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion–when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing–when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favours–when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you–when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice–you may know that your society is doomed. Money is so noble a medium that it does not compete with guns and it does not make terms with brutality. It will not permit a country to survive as half property, half-loot…

...Gold was an objective value, an equivalent of wealth produced. Paper is a mortgage on wealth that does not exist, backed by a gun aimed at those who are expected to produce it. Paper is a check drawn by legal looters upon an account which is not theirs: upon the virtue of the victims. Watch for the day when it bounces, marked, ‘Account overdrawn.'” – Francisco’s Money Speech, Atlas Shrugged

GotGoldorRubles? Did Russia Just Break The Back Of The West?

 Clearly the war in Ukraine is a proxy war and the stakes are much higher than a corrupt country that very few people care much about, save Hunter Biden... maybe?

  The protagonists are New York and the City of London on the Western side, and Russia and China on the multi-polar side. China, maybe reluctantly as the country needed another two or three years of strengthening before such a direct challenge to the Occidental world order.

But now that the dices are rolling, all the protagonists will have to take the gloves off. China of course, but also India, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and all the other raw material producers who will less and less accept valueless currencies for actual resources. This is the real start of the real war of the 21st century. Buckle up for the ride!

Authored by Tom Luongo via Gold, Goats, 'n Guns blog,

I don’t think everyone has yet caught the significance of Russia announcing they are putting a floor under the price of gold.  

But, to be clear, Russia just broke the paper gold suppression scheme.

On Friday the Bank of Russia announced:

RUB5000 to the ounce at an exchange rate of 100 RUB/USD implies a $1550 per ounce gold price.

For a few days previous to this announcement, which they knew was coming, The West was running around with multiple bits of legislation to try and keep the Russians from selling their gold.

The G7 think the sanctions are hitting so hard that Putin will be forced to sell his gold to evade sanctions to pay for things.  They are literally running a script in their heads that is not actually playing out in the real world.

But, whatever, Neocons never met an ugly stick that they didn’t want to use to beat someone over the head with.  Too bad all they’re doing is hitting a rubber tire.

Boing!

Because here’s the gig, Russia won’t be selling any gold. They’re buying it.

These are supposed to be the architects of the global monetary system and you would think they are the ones that understand it the best.  But, clearly they do not.

What they think they understand is that they still control the flow of commodities around the world through price suppression schemes on the CRIMEX, LBMA and ICE.

They do not.

Ultimately, ‘outside money’ trumps ‘inside money.’  

Austrians, like myself, have always understood that eventually Inside Money [money that exists within the financial system] fails because it is ultimately nothing more than a Ponzi Scheme built on top of Outside Money — money that exists outside the financial system, like commodities and bitcoin.

Money, It’s a Hit!

Let’s start with the basics. Why do we create money? To act as a way to mitigate the time risk between selling what we have and buying what we want. So we sell our labor today to buy gasoline, printer paper or blow jobs tomorrow. In the meantime we hold money.

It is a way to turn thought and personal application of energy and time into a token which can procure for us real goods in the real world.

With that in mind, now think about the current financial system where all inside money is created by first selling a debt instrument to someone willing to hold it for a vig.

Back to the ruble and gold. Because once I lay out the new incentive structure it will be clear as to why the G7 has no friends in this fight anymore.  

Davos’ power rests on the ability to create credit and sell it at a positive interest carry to commodity producers.  Since base commodity production in any kind of efficient market should be a very low margin enterprise, think 1-4% real annual return, selling them debt to extract oil or gold out of the ground at higher rates than that ultimately sucks all the profit out of the venture.

Free markets when allowed to function properly grind out profit through competitive arbitrage. It is both brutal and the spark of new innovations and efficiencies.

It is the desire for higher profits over baseline that does this.

In base commodities that is difficult, at best, to do. Why? Because they aren’t anything more than a second order good. First order would be the ore or timber harvested. Second order would be the ingot or lumber produced. The higher order the good, the more specialized it is and the higher opportunity for profit through product differentiation on something other than price emerges.

That’s most difficult to do in improving resource extraction because, it follows, most of the major gains in efficiency occurred in the past when the economy was less specialized.

Confusion Over ‘The System’

If the banks are on both sides of the trade setting the price of money, then they ultimately control who wins and who loses while this goes on. And let’s not mince words, it’s them. The profit rolls up to those that produce the highest order goods with the most complex supply chains.

The banks plough the profits from getting interest on the original debt into the very companies producing the higher order goods needed to ensure the lower order goods produce no wealth through the grinding out of profit via arbitrage throughout the supply chain.

Don’t believe me? Ask cattle farmers.

In this respect the current financing of these industries is nothing more than a virtualized version of the colonial economic model of the 15th through 19th centuries.

Instead of using physical men to subjugate the locals through superior weaponry and bribes to get them to extract the mineral wealth which the colonialists take back home, today we use the post-WWII institutions to run that same system through debt issuance for capex and the interest payments (in this case pure economic rent – unearned wealth).

The producer countries of all the mineral wealth in the world are nothing but debt slaves to the money masters in Brussels, City of London and New York.  That’s the gig.

Since we’ve reached the point of debt saturation where no more debt can be issued to extract mineral wealth and have the markets believe it could ever be paid back at these real yields, the system has to be reset.

The whole Great Reset is a way to crash the existing system but leave the same colonialists in power legally.

It’s not really more complicated than that.

When you understand that dynamic now you can understand why Russia, in particular, is the vanguard of the Global South’s desire to change the System of the World.

It is also the one country that has the commodity production power to expose the vulnerabilities of this System.

That’s Nice… #GotRubles?

And that’s where pegging the ruble to gold comes in.

The Bank of Russia is now a buyer of gold at 5000 rubles to the gram, or 155,500 rubles to the troy ounce.  At a Friday March 25th closing price of RUB96.62 vs. the USD that implies a gold price of $1610 per ounce.

The ruble is now freely strengthening versus the US dollar.

Now, that is not that remarkable on its own. 

As I explained on Twitter that day:

• 1: At $1550 per ounce the first order effect here is that is implies a RUB/USD rate of around 75. Incentivizing those holding RUB to continue and those needing them to bid up the price from current levels.

• 2: This creates a positive incentive loop to bring the ruble back to pre-war levels.  Then after that market effects take over as ruble demand becomes structural, based on Russia’s trade balance.

• 3: Once that happens and the RUB/USD falls below 75, then the USD price of gold rises structurally draining the paper gold markets and collapsing the financial system based on leveraged/hypothecated gold.  Now we’re into the arb. phase @Lukegromen postulated w/ 1000bbls/oz.

So, this scheme incentivizes Russians to hold savings in rubles, because the ruble is undervalued.  It also incentivizes foreign traders to hold rubles because the ruble is undervalued relative to an overvalued open gold price.

Clearly currency speculators in Moscow, Shanghai, Singapore, Mumbai and Hong Kong are having a field day with this.

Coupled with Putin demanding ‘unfriendly countries’ paying for their Russian imports with either gold or the ruble, the natural choice is for them to buy rubles until such time as the price of gold and the ruble are in sync on international markets.

The howls of pain from the G-7 and Germany in particular are equal parts pathetic and hilarious as they complain that Putin is in ‘breach of contract’ for demanding a different payment currency for gas other than the euros stipulated in the contract.

Earlier Monday German Economy Minister Robert Habeck said from Berlin that the Kremlin demand for natural gas contracts to be paid in rubles is a “one-sided and clear breach of contracts” – saying the contracts must be honored under prior conditions, according to Bloomberg. “That means that a payment in rubles is not acceptable and we urge the relevant companies not to comply with Putin’s demand,” Habeck said. “Putin’s effort to drive a wedge between us is obvious but you can see that we won’t allow ourselves to be divided and the answer from the G-7 is clear: the contracts will be honored.”

The Kremlin’s quick shooting down of the German economy minister’s comments and the G-7’s stance on the ruble came Monday via a Russian lawmaker to state-run RIA Novosti: “Russian lawmaker Abramov says G7’s refusal to pay in Russian roubles for gas will definitely lead to a halt in supplies.”

Pissed off Russians certainly have a way with words, as a writer, I appreciate this greatly. According to TASS:

Moscow is handling the details of its gas delivery plans to unfriendly countries for payment in rubles, but it won’t engage in charity if Europe refuses to pay in the Russian currency, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday.

…The Kremlin spokesman remained tight-lipped on what measures Russia might take if Europe refused to pay for gas in rubles, noting that these “issues should be sorted out as they develop.” “But we will definitely not supply gas for free, that’s for sure. It is hardly possible and reasonable to engage in charity in our situation,” he emphasized.

Do you hear that Davos? That’s the sound of the ticking clock.

The Trade’s the Thing…

The reason why this current scheme is already working is that Russia runs a positive trade balance mostly in base commodity exports. Davos doesn’t want them making any money selling those commodities to the world and will continue to put sanctions on to get people to not use rubles.

They are however fighting the invisible hand of Adam Smith’s market. The demand for the ruble will rise above the pre-war exchange rate of around 75:1 vs. the USD.

The price point for gold/ruble implies that exchange rate. Russia will revisit this at the end of Q2.  This also implies they expect the ruble/dollar rate to fall to 75 by the end of Q2, if not earlier.

After that if the ruble strengthens beyond that they can adjust the gold buying price.  

If the ruble/dollar rate dips below their pegged price, buyers are getting oil at a discount when paying in gold. That will force the CRIMEX and LBMA into a supply shortage situation or they will have to end the expansion of paper gold versus real gold and allow real price discovery to the upside.

If the sanctions are successful in scaring everyone into not using rubles gold Russian commodities then the exchange rate will stay stubbornly above 75 and the boycotting world will lose competitive advantage versus those willing to brave the US’s ire by getting Russian commodities on the cheap.

As I talked about in previous articles, this sets up the opportunity to end the suppression of the price of gold through rehypothecation of physical gold in the paper markets which is the basis for the entire financial colonization system I described above.

FYI, this same scenario is going to play out in Bitcoin now that Russia has said ‘friendly countries’ can pay for imports with Bitcoin.  Has anyone noticed the current rally in the World’s Most Hated Cryptocurrency?

We now have a full gold/bitcoin/ruble (and soon Yuan) interconversion system that completely and utterly cuts out Davos and destroys their colonial debt model while also taking away their power to crash economies through hot money in and out flows.

Because the next step in all of this is for Russia to close their capital account and nationalizing the Bank of Russia making the only source of international rubles be the Russian government.  

Internally, the ruble will be de facto backed by gold and can circulate freely.  

The War Without End, Ended

The war is over folks.  Russia, China and the rest of the Global South have already won. As Luke Gromen replied to me., “in the end there’s nothing they can do about it.” 

What scares me is the last thing I tweeted out in that thread: 

“Other than widen the war on the ground.  That’s the part that scares me.”

And that’s exactly what I expect to happen next, sadly.  Biden is in Brussels saying the quiet parts out loud talking with the 82nd Airborne about going into Ukraine and calling for regime change in Moscow.  

These people still believe their own bullshit to the point where they think this becomes a war the Russians can’t win.

Putin let the world down easy with this announcement.  He could have walked right in and said 8000 rubles to the gram or $2575/oz and that would have broken the markets Friday going into the weekend, by selling his oil and gas at a steep discount.

He waited until after OpEx last Friday and the Fed’s interest rate hike plan was announced.

Timing matters guys.

But, by doing this he has very subtly also supported the Fed and it’s plan to withdraw dollars from Europe, because this will keep the price of gold in check for a little while and keeping the ECB from offsetting spiking Eurobond yields with higher gold reserves on its balance sheet.

Putin on the left arm, Powell on the right and Lagarde is about to get pulled apart at the seams if Davos doesn’t play ball and give up.

The problem there is the unquenchable arrogance of these European elites who simply do not believe they could be bested by the “colonies” in the US and the “dirty slavs” in Russia.  I’ve told you for years now that it is their inherent racism that drives their actions. 

So, do not be surprised if they empower the neocons in the UK and US to escalate from here. The signs are piling up that the Pentagon and the White House are at odds over the planned escalations. The State and Treasury Depts. are nests of vipers having usurped Congress to wage war without declaring it.

I can only hope that serious and adult people within the Pentagon will finally end this nonsense before we wind up in a war no one wants except a bunch of inbred Eurotrash well past their ‘use-by’ date.

I always say that spooks start civil wars but militaries end them. Let’s hope that we never get to the point of needing any other military than the Russians’ to end this war.

In the meantime, the message is clear, #GotGoldorRubles?

China's 5th wave of Covid arrives (Video)

 Think you had a hard time with Covid in the West? Think again: Here's China 2022!

 

Russian Sanction Blowback Will Drive a Physical Gold Revaluation (Video)

 A revaluation or a revolution?

 Listen carefully through the words. This may be THE most important video you hear in a long time!

 

Alphabetical order (Joke & education)

 At a glance, this looks like a joke. But looking at it more closely, it is anything but.

 Education as we all know is more about conforming than educating. But it could easily be different. 

 There is clearly two levels to answer the question below. A simple one for elementary school and a more advanced one. What if ALL questions were built according to this model? The simple answer is and remains correct but a more advanced answer is also possible...

 This approach is actually quite fertile and can be used more widely without deleterious effects. The Matrix movie is a good example: An action movie dealing with more complex philosophical questions in the background. Although not understanding what Morpheus, the Oracle or the Architect are saying does not prevent anyone from enjoying the movie.

 Dumbing down is a choice not a necessity!

 

The Battle for Ukraine by Scott Ritter (Ex UN Weapon Inspector) - Video

 This is a long but stunning video. Do Western leaders believe their own rhetoric? It is actually quite possible! Former President Obama used to say that Vice President Biden was not fit to be President. And that was long before his toying with senility. As for Kamala Harris, it is actually difficult to listen to her more than 10mn and not conclude that she is indeed imbecile! But there are, there must be people around them, other than the Neo-cons who actually understand and know what they are talking about. Here's one...

 

Victor Davis Hanson: The Real 'Reset' Is Coming

If only! If the dichotomy was only between conservatives and progressives. We would indeed just need to see the pendulum swing and go back to the post WW2 years. But this is of course exactly what will not happen. A better energy policy would save years, a decade at most, not get us out of our predicament.   

Some nuclear, a little wing and solar, a lot of gas would help wait until our fusion energytopia future. But all in all we still need to transition out of oil while the world population is still growing and we simply do not know how to do this.

So overshoot and crash it will be. A forth turning once again. 

Authored by Victor Davis Hanson,

President Joe Biden believes the Ukraine war will mark the start of a "new world order."

In the middle of the COVID global pandemic, Klaus Schwab and global elites likewise announced a "great reset."

Accordingly, the nations of the world would have to surrender their sovereignty to an international body of experts. They would enlighten us on taxes, diversity, and green policies.

When former President Donald Trump got elected in 2016, marquee journalists announced partisan reporting would have to displace the old, supposedly disinterested approach to the news.

There is a common theme here.

In normal times progressives worry that they do not have public support for their policies. Only in crises do they feel that the political Left and media can merge to use apocalyptic times to ram through usually unpopular approaches to foreign and domestic problems.

We saw that last year: fleeing from Afghanistan, the embrace of critical race theory, trying to end the filibuster, pack the court, junk the Electoral College, and nationalize voting laws.

These "new orders" and "resets" always entail far bigger government and more unelected, powerful bureaucracies. Elites assume that their radical changes in energy use, media reporting, voting, sovereignty, and racial and ethnic quotas will never quite apply to themselves, the architects of such top-down changes.

So we common folk must quit fossil fuels, but not those who need to use corporate jets. Walls will not mar our borders but will protect the homes of Nancy Pelosi, Mark Zuckerberg, and Bill Gates.

Hunter Biden's lost laptop will be declared, by fiat, not news. In contrast, the fake Alfa Bank "collusion" narrative will be national headline news for weeks.

Middle class lifestyles will be curbed as we are instructed to strive for sustainability and transition to apartment living and mass transit. But the Obamas will still keep their three mansions, and Silicon Valley futurists will insist on exemptions for their yachts.

In truth, we are about to see a radical reset - of the current reset. It will be a different sort of transformation than the elites are expecting and one that they should greatly fear.

The world and the United States are furious over hyperinflation that may soon exceed 10% per year. We will be lucky if it ends only in recession or stagflation, rather than a global depression.

The mess was created by the same apparat who bought into "modern monetary theory." That silly university idea claimed prosperity would follow vastly expanding the money supply, keeping interest rates at de facto zero levels, running huge annual deficits, piling up unsustainable national debt, and subsidizing workers to stay home.

Natural gas and oil costs are now soaring to unsustainable levels - and to the point where the middle class simply will not be able to travel, keep warm in winter, or cool in summer.

Both in Europe and the United States left-wing governments deliberately curbed drilling and non-Russian pipelines. They shut down nuclear power plants and subsidized costly, inefficient solar and wind projects. They ended up not with utopia, but with fuel shortages, high prices, and energy dependency on the world's most repressive regimes.

The woke revolution in the West was supposed to teach us that the "white male"-dominated Western world is toxic. Its origins, ascendence, and current leisure and affluence were supposedly due only to systemic exploitation, racism, and sexism.

Elites introduced cancel culture, doxxing, deplatforming, and social ostracism to shame these supposed exploiters and to destroy their lives and careers.

Few asked how a supposedly noxious West of some 2,500 years duration became the number one destination of millions of global non-Western migrants and offered the greatest degree of global prosperity and freedom for its citizens.

So a reset reckoning is coming - in reaction to the "new orders" championed by Biden and the Davos set.

In the November 2022 midterms, we are likely to see a historic "No!" to the orthodox left-wing agenda that has resulted in unsustainable inflation, unaffordable energy, war, and humiliation abroad, spiraling crime, racial hostility - as well as arrogant defiance from those who deliberately enacted these disastrous policies.

What will replace it is a return to what until recently had worked.

Closed and secure borders with only legal and measured immigration will return. Americans will demand tough police enforcement and deterrent sentencing, and a return to integration and the primacy of individual character rather than separatist fixations on the "color our skin."

The public will continue to tune out of the partisan and mediocre "mainstream" media. We will see greater increased production of oil and natural gas to transition us slowly to a wider variety of energy, strong national defense, and deterrent foreign policies.

The prophets of the new world order sowed the wind and they will soon reap the whirlwind of an angry public worn out by elite incompetence, arrogance, and ignorance.

Why the World is Running Out of Computers (Video)

 More than running out of semiconductors, the world is becoming more fragile which is a corollary of increased complexity so almost unavoidable. To re-balance, we'll need to decrease complexity and get rid of the slack built around systems which is why we have cycles. We have learned a lot since the last great reset but the forces at play are still beyond our reach and the consequences of our ignorance staring us in the eyes... 

 

The Art Market is a Scam (Video)

 An amazing video about the art market "scam" and why the rich gets richer while the rest gets poorer. What is known is that in any stable society, some people will quickly outsmart the system whatever system we build. But more interesting is how this is actually done. This is the striking and educative example of the art market.